distinction, and when an apron was suspended round her immense waist it
ceased to be an apron, and became a symbol, like the apron of a
Freemason.

'Well, Rebecca?' I said, without turning my head.

I guessed urgency, otherwise Rebecca would have delegated Lucy.

'If you please, Miss Carlotta, your aunt is not feeling well, and she
will not be able to go to the concert to-night.'

'Not be able to go to the concert!' I repeated mechanically.

'No, miss.'

'I will come downstairs.'

'If I were you, I shouldn't, miss. She's dozing a bit just now.'

'Very well.'

I went on playing. But Chopin, who was the chief factor in my emotional
life; who had taught me nearly all I knew of grace, wit, and tenderness;
who had discovered for me the beauty that lay in everything, in sensuous
exaltation as well as in asceticism, in grief as well as in joy; who had
shown me that each moment of life, no matter what its import, should be
lived intensely and fully; who had carried me with him to the dizziest
heights of which passion is capable; whose music I spiritually
comprehended to a degree which I felt to be extraordinary--Chopin had
almost no significance for me as I played then the most glorious of his